Ravensong - A Novel

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Overview

Set along the Pacific Northwest Coast in the 1950s, Ravensong tells the story of an urban Native community devastated by an influenza epidemic. Stacey, a 17-year-old Native girl, struggles with the clash between white society’s values and her family’s traditional ways, knowing that her future lies somewhere in between. Celia, her sister, has visions from the past, while Raven warns of an impending catastrophe before the two cultures reconcile. In this passionate story about a young woman’s quest for answers, author Lee Maracle speaks unflinchingly of the gulf between two cultures: a gulf that Raven says must be bridged. Ravensong is a moving drama that includes elements of prophecy, mythology, cultural critique, and humour.

Featuring a preface by Lee Maracle and cover art by Métis artist Christi Belcourt, this revitalized edition is ideal for use in Literature and Gender and Women’s Studies programs.

Lee Maracle is a Professor of Aboriginal Studies at the University of Toronto and an award-winning author and poet. She has received a “Writer of the Year” award from Circle Craft, a North American Native writer’s circle and the JT Stewart Award for her body of work. She has an Honorary Doctorate from St. Thomas University and received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal.

Reviews

“In Maracle’s seminal work, Raven bears witness to one of the last epidemics in a small, Indigenous village with its new, white neighbours and their strange ways. Comic and mundane moments jostle together as Ravensong brings the reader on a stunning journey to a time and place before the women scattered and the matriarchy stopped being the center of village life. Maracle’s profoundly communal approach to storytelling is generous, earthy, and wise, a breath of bracing sea air. From her cedars to her ravens, her ocean and her characters, Maracle’s world is alive, bursting and singing.”— Eden Robinson, author of Son of a Trickster and Monkey Beach

“Just as Raven brought light to the world, Lee Maracle brings light to the shape and cadence of Indigenous worlds that colonization attempts to erase. Set in a vibrant reserve community of stealthy night fisherwomen, berry picking cousins, whispering cedars, and chuckling ravens, this coming-of-age story is wrought within the vibrancy of Indigenous law and ancient kinship. Maracle’s words bring spirit to the page, tracing the contours of coastal relations that are aching to be read. This book is a survival song. With its re-release, our ancestors are dancing.”— Sarah Hunt, Kwagiulth (Kwakwaka’wakw) scholar and activist